Motorola ic902 Deluxe Review

Performance:

The performance of the UI lies somewhere in-between the V3m/K1m and the V9m. It does not suffer from the horrible lag often found on the former two devices, but lag is noticeable and is a bit slower than the V9m. Scrolling through menu items and lists is fluid enough, but there is a noticeable delay when an item is selected. This lag can last anywhere from 1-2s and is just long enough to frustrate us, though short enough that we feel bad about complaining about it. However, when compared to the lightning fast Sprint UIs from Samsung and Sanyo, as well as LG’s (which is just a fraction of a second slower,) we feel it is a valid complaint. Despite occasional lockups and restarts, the software on the Deluxe is a bit more stable than the V9m.

Sound quality on the phone was very good from the handset; callers sounded loud and clear and reported the same of us, even when signal was weak. However, with a Bluetooth headset callers complained that we sounded distant and when on speakerphone they complained that we could not be heard with the unit just a few feet away. On our end the speakerphone is very loud and we had no issues hearing the caller. Reception was good, and we did not notice any quality degradation even in low signal areas. DC was lightning quick as always.


It should be noted that, as a Power Source device, the phone lacks a CDMA 800 band which eliminates most of Sprint’s roaming agreements and drastically decreases the calling area when compared to a CDMA-only handset. The iDEN radio is used only for DC calls, so theoretically the user may be in an area where they have only voice service or only DC service. Without the 800Mhz band the CDMA calling area is still larger than iDEN, so we recommend this phone to users coming from iDEN but caution current CDMA users who will notice a drastic decrease in their calling area. For CDMA users wanting the DC service you will either have to sacrifice coverage or wait until 1Q 2008 when Sprint has announced their High Speed PTT service (QChat,) running over the EVDO rev A network and backwards compatible with the Nextel DC.

Talk time is rated at 3.5 hours (210 minutes) but in our testing we were able to achieve 251 minutes, well above the stated time. This is a very welcome finding, especially given that previous PowerSource devices had a particularly short battery life. The standby life was not as impressive however, and there were times when the phone would die within 24 hours of charging with no talk time and very limited web use. In fact, during the writing of this review, the phone went from completely charged to dead within five hours. There was about 20 minutes of talk time and under five minutes of web usage, and when not being used the phone was closed and all backlights off.

Conclusion:

The Deluxe does what it sets out to do fairly well: introduce iDEN users to the power of Sprint’s CDMA network. The phone has a full feature set and for iDEN customers the device is smaller than what they are used to. The build quality is excellent, and while the menu lag can be frustrating, the UI is a large upgrade from iDEN phones and relatively stable compared with its Motorola CDMA counterparts like the V9m. When taken in context the Deluxe is a success and we highly recommend it to iDEN power users and tech lovers who just have to have their walkie-talkie.